Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 4).djvu/330

 to which it is now fitted, a blade fashioned by López Aguado, and dated on the ricasso 1567, a circumstance that helps to establish fairly accurately the earlier period to which this style of hilt generally belongs. An intermediary form of such a hilt may be seen upon a sword formerly in the Londesborough Collection, but now in that of the Baron de Cosson; it forms a link in a large series of hilts of a family more frequently met with, and all Spanish in their origin. The de Cosson sword (Fig. 1366) still shows the fluted cone-shaped pommel; but the swept hilt is more developed, and the various bars are fluted to correspond in decoration, while the whole hilt has been plated with silver. The blade is remarkable, and it was certainly made for the hilt.

Spanish, third quarter of the XVIth century. The blade is by López Aguado, and is dated 1567. G 54, Royal Armoury, Madrid

Spanish, third quarter of the XVIth century Collection: Baron de Cosson

The ricasso bears an armourer's mark, and the words , inscribed in the long narrow groove that runs almost to the point on either side of the blade. But over the armourer's mark a circular device has been engraved; on one side of the ricasso with the arms of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and on the other with their badges, yugo y flechas, the yoke and sheaf